Month: March 2022

Fri. Mar. 11, 2022 – Plenty to do, and getting ready for more work…

Cool again, but clear.  Yesterday was pretty nice by the time I got going.  Clear sky, warmish…  put me in mind of washing the vehicles.  Won’t do that, the paint needs its protective layer.

Did auction stuff, then did a pickup.  Swung by my storage unit and headed home.  STILL haven’t gotten to Costco.

Today I will swing past Costco.  I need gas in the Ranger, they have the Breathe Right strips on sale this week, and I want more rice and flour.  If they have any.  Plus, I need TP and paper towel for the BOL.

I need to also swing by my secondary and then drop something off out at my client’s place.  One trip to Conroe in there somewhere too for some auction stuff for the BOL.

I’ll be busy all day.

Some of it will contribute to my preparedness level.  Some will just contribute to domestic bliss.  And some will be a distraction.

Don’t let the news get too distracting for you.  Eyes on the prize!  Stack something…

n

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Thur. Mar. 10, 2022 – moar preps! moar stacking! Do it!

Less cold and damp, more sunny.  I hope.  It was pretty nice yesterday considering.  I was outside in shirtsleeves, but my nose and fingers were cold.

My plan for the day needs it to not be raining, so, fingers crossed.

I got most of what I wanted to get done finished at my client’s house.   There are a couple of  things remaining, but I need some remote support from the programmer to make progress with them.

Today I’m hoping to move at least a truck load from the one unit to my closer storage unit.  During that move, I’ll try to get another truckload for the local auction sorted out and delivered.

Spring Break is next week and my wife wants to spend the week at the BOL, doing work and exploring the area.  I know the work needs doing, but it does take me away from my endless lists of stuff to do for a week.  Like I said before, I’m going to have to step up my game.

Y’all need to think about stepping up your game too.   Things are already worse than a week ago, and two weeks ago.  There aren’t many things happening to make them better any time soon.   We may not get to Mad Max, but I bet we get to ’30s depression, or WWII levels of scarcity.  And it could be worse.   So get to stacking…

nick

 

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Wed. Mar. 9, 2022 – more work, less talk

Cold and wet, but less wet than yesterday when there was misty drizzle or light drizzle most of the day.  It was 46F when I got up and 44F when I went to bed, and stayed pretty cold all day long.  I really hope today will be warmer, and drier.

My plan for yesterday got switched to a degree with the plan for today.   The rain stopped me from doing stuff at my storage, or secondary, and it would have been nasty at my client’s house.  So I did smaller things and picked up the kid from school, and drove around.

Today I need to be finishing up at my client’s house.  I need to get done and paid, and I need to change gears and get stuff done at my secondary and start work at the BOL.   We wired them money, signed some papers, and possibly today, or tomorrow, we’ll officially own the new place.  Then some real work can get started.

Stuff continues to worsen on the world stage.  Lies and misdirection continue to be foisted on us.  Prices are still going up.  The body politic is more divided than ever.  People are running wild in the streets of our big cities.   All bad things.

Work your list, improve your position.   Get out of the big cities.  Don’t be distracted from your goals by the spectacle around you.   Stack all the things.

n

 

 

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Tues. Mar. 8, 2022 – busy day. Busy week.

Cold again.  Probably just cool and damp later, but cold this am.   We got drizzle yesterday, despite the weather liars at openweathermap.org assuring me that we would not.  The national forecast had us in the rain zone.   It wasn’t bad really, or long, and as I headed north I was back in sunglasses pretty quickly.

Gas prices are rising pretty quickly even here in Texas.  Markets are pretty distorted, and demand is all over the place.   I don’t see any reason for it to get better anytime soon, and lots of reasons for it to get worse.

In fact, that sums up my outlook on pretty much any subject at the moment.  I don’t think sanity and practicality are going to break out.   I see a doubling down on the insanity instead.  And I see it building to a head, and then coming apart kinetically.

Now some people around here have chided me (in the spirit of goodwill, I believe) that I was too negative-  “the end is nigh” ” the end is nigh-er”…   but I don’t think it’s “the end” that’s nigh, but a massive disruption, a massive change in pretty much everything, except human nature.  I did not know the mechanism, but pestilence, war, and famine are always good bets.    Current world events seem to be supportive of that belief, if not yet settling on the mechanism.  And don’t forget to embrace the power of ‘and’ when it comes to mechanism.

I find myself wondering if I was negative enough.  My recent lull in prepping and lack of enthusiasm in the face of everything would seem to indicate that I wasn’t taking it seriously.  Well, now we seem to be at the elbow of the curve for  a lot of things, food prices, gas prices, violence, and I’m feeling a bit anxious that I let too much time slip away.

If you are feeling that too, I think we need to shake it off, take the time we have and USE it.   Anything that improves our position is worth it, with any prep being better than none.   I’m still living by my requirement that nothing I do can be irrevocable, but I’m willing to burn a bridge or two if I have to now.  Nations are starting to do the same.  Several have now announced bans on export of food, or fertilizer, or fuel.  If shortages are coming, nations and people are acting to secure their own needs first.   I recommend doing the same.   DON’T be that guy, faced with empty shelves, crying “why didn’t you leave any for me?”

Unless you are someone’s minor child or legal ward, no one has any obligation to put your needs ahead of their own.  That is not the way many of us are used to thinking of the world, or even living our lives, but that is the base reality.   No one is coming to save you.  Plan to save yourself.  After that, if it’s what you want, plan to save others.

All of it is a lot easier with stacks of needful things.   Get busy.

n

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Mon. Mar. 7, 2022 – sometime this week is the 56th anniversary of my birth, and the world should rejoice!

because it’s all about ME!

Cool and probably raining all day.   National forecast has us in the middle of a t-storm/rain zone.  If we’re near the edge we usually don’t get it.  I think the forecaster errs on the side of rain.  No one is disappointed when it DOESN’T rain.  We went from part sun to overcast yesterday and even got some misty drizzle in the late afternoon.  At 4pm it felt like 8pm.

Spent the day getting little done.  Some auction stuff in the morning, then there was some confusion about cookie booth times, double booking, and who had what child, when; so I ended up cancelling what I had planned and doing daddy duties.  Spent a nice hour on the phone with my mom while I waited for child activities to end.

Today I’ve got some pickups, and weather permitting, getting stuff ready for dropping off at my auctioneer.  Then it’s daddy daughter activity time.   Short work day.   Maybe I’ll do a bit better at chess this week.

So many things to do, I need to step up my game.

The list is long, and the time is short.

Get to stacking…   and stop slacking.  Get those projects done.

n

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Sun. Mar. 6, 2022 – fresh outta fresh content…

Cool and clear, maybe not either.   Got into the 80s yesterday!  Spring is here!   Yea!  It was 71F at midnight.

Spent the day Saturday running around.  Touching base with a couple of different aspects of my life…

Will spend as much of today as possible moving stuff around in storage units.   Might end up paying for an extra month on my one unit after all.  That will take pressure off me, but that isn’t really what I need, is it?

Upshot of my ‘taking the tenor of t he clans’ is nervousness, and uncertainty.  Although everyone seems to be absolutely certain that Vlad is insane and will fail,  I’m not sure of either of those  things.

I spent a good deal of time re-reading some old posts and comments from around the time of the one I linked yesterday, or from the beginning of me posting and not just commenting.  Lots of good discussion about beginning prepping around that time, June and July, 2016.  Lot of voices we don’t hear very often these days.

DadCooks, check in please.

JLP, Spook, pcb_duffer, miles_teg, and others have not commented in a long time.   If you guys are out there, check in!

A lot has changed in the last six years.  A surprising amount of stuff has stayed pretty much the same.  And some stuff has completely reversed (like cops being killed by blacks being the topic o the times…)

Definitely worth exploring the old posts and comments.

And I do have to say, while the things we were prepping for at the time didn’t come to pass, the wuflu did, and we were well served by our preps.

So stack it high, even if you don’t think the current justification is sensible, there will be something else to come along, and prove the ant smarter than the grasshopper.

nick

 

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Sat. Mar. 5, 2022 – time keeps on slippin’ into the future….

Cool, overcast, damp, but not actually raining… except the forecast says possible rain.  I hope for some more clear time to move stuff around.

I did some of that yesterday.  Picked up stuff, and moved stuff.  Back was sore last night, and is sore again today.   I’ve been wearing some lightweight tactical boots and they have both good support and good cushioning.  It seems to be making a difference in how bad I feel after lifting and toting.

D2 has a function for her school club this morning.  Mom is going to take her.  I hope to sleep in a bit.  Not too much, I’ve got too much to do.

And some of it will get done.  Some of it will not.

I didn’t get to Costco on Friday, and I’m loathe to go on the weekend but needs must, if I can find the time.

I can use the extra stacks.   It’s feeling like that sort of a decade.

Stack something this weekend.  Or go all Scrooge McDuck on your piles, and check them over.   But do something.

 

nick

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Fri. Mar. 4, 2022 – If it weren’t for disinformation, there’d be no information at all

Cool but not cold, still damp, and maybe sunny later.  It was finally sunny after noon yesterday and I actually got a little sunburnt standing around outside while doing my errands.   Now I’m itchy and sore.

I decided to consolidate some of my storage units to one closer to the house.  Besides being burgled, and not having any video or suspects, the company recently posted a slew of ‘no guns’ signs.   They are legally posted, legal wording, and I’m ignoring them completely.  They weren’t in the contract, so since I’m unable to end the contract before my monthly anniversary date, I consider them to be invalid.  No way I’m going to be unarmed on the property when they can’t even keep thieves from robbing my unit.

I’ll be sorting for ebay and local auctions while I move the stuff to the new unit.  And of course, it needs to happen immediately so I don’t end up paying for an extra month on the old unit.   As a side note, there are a lot more storage units available now than there were a year or two years ago.  Don’t know why.

Took another couple of bins to one auctioneer, and he says he wants more stuff next week.   He’s expanded his business and now he needs to keep feeding it, so he wants my stuff.  I got the check and report from the last auction and I made money.  Most of the stuff that sold well came from the Goodwill outlet store  (the ‘bins’).   If I could double the gross, and do it twice a month, it would be a really nice part time income again, just with the one auctioneer.

Sold one item this week on ebay, that has been listed for 3 years.  It’s the first sale of the item that I can recall, and I’ve got 79 more listed.  Made 12$.  Ebay has not been paying off for smaller items like I’d hoped, but my daily listing stopped, and that kills you in the search results.  I’ll take the blame for now.

Today I really need to end up at my client’s after I do a pickup or two.

Then home to do weekend stuff.

We still don’t have an actual “closing date” for the BOL, but there is a plan to do the paperwork, transfer, and handover separately, instead of doing it all on one day, in person.  Should work ok.   We just need to actually DO it.

Once I can start the process of moving and fixing at the BOL, I’ll feel better, although the work will be harder.  I do better when I have more external deadlines.

The world seems to be imposing some deadlines on all of us.  We don’t get to see the timeline, but the feeling is very strong that there IS one.   I think things will be getting very ugly, and it has already started to accelerate.   I’m reminded of the thought experiment about the pond and the water lilies that double in number every few days.   The question is, how much of the pond is covered the day before the last doubling?  And the answer is “half”.    The pond goes from half covered to fully covered in one final doubling.   It takes a while to get to ‘half’ but only one additional period to get to ‘full’.   “It happened overnight!”  “It came out of no where!”   We’re in the early stages, but the end will seem sudden nonetheless.

So stack food, fuel, and friends, plus whatever else you are still short of.  I’m increasingly sure we’re gonna need ’em.

nick

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Thur. Mar. 3, 2022 – [insert funny or eye catching phrase here]

Cool, but not cold, but still clear and sunny.  I hope anyway.  Yesterday was full on ‘Chamber of Commerce weather’.    Blue sky, nice breeze, pleasant temps.   It was almost enough to believe Spring was here.

I did get some things done locally when my plan to go out to my client’s house fell apart.  Spent some time with one of my local auctioneers.   Picked up my unsold items.   Chatted a while.  His wife has recovered from the wuflu.  Some residual coughing, but she never lost smell or taste.

Did some small cleaning and maintenance stuff around the house.

Picked up D1 and completely failed to spend time together for reasons involving stuff I’m too angry about to discuss.

Dinner included chopped cabbage, sauteed in bacon fat with sweet onion as a nod to my ancestors from the Baltic region.   Good peasant food, re-imagined.  Well, not boiled anyway.   Cabbages, potatoes, carrots, onions, and apples are staples for good reasons.   They are relatively easy to grow, they store over the winter, and they have plenty of nutrition in them.   They are also easy to cook, just boil or eat most of them raw.  They CAN be prepared other, far more tasty ways though.  “Modern” cookery ignores the traditional staples in favor of exotic imports.  That’s a luxury we may  not have in days to come.  Take a new look at some recipe books.  Try some new/old things.  Plan your garden around traditional staples.

Plan for today…. nope.  Not gonna say it out loud.  One less chance for the universe to mess me about.  It does involve auction stuff and moving stuff around in storage units.  And maybe picking up a check.

Do what you can with what you have, where you are.  Smarter people than me have said similar.  It looks like good advice to me.

And stack up all the things.  If it’s critical for you, you probably need more of it.

nick

 

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Wed. Mar. 2, 2022 – … so don’t feel sad, two out of three ain’t bad.

Cold again, maybe.  Or maybe just cool.   The pattern has been starting cold and getting warmer, but it was only 48F when I went to bed, not <40F so we may be starting from “cool”.  We’re supposed to be sunny and clear for a few days in any case.

I did some pickups yesterday, and spent a few hours sorting through my storage unit that got burgled.  I took about 6 bins to my local guy, with the promise I can bring him more on Thursday.  I could take him more than that… and I didn’t even get through all the stuff in that unit.

Traffic was horrible in the afternoon.   Several of our major expressways were jammed for miles by a whole bunch of concurrent wrecks.   I was glad it was unrelated incidents and not one big one.  Shows where my mind is at that I considered something bigger than a simple traffic accident.   In my defense, by the time the tollway is backed up for miles, you rarely see 2 fire trucks and an ambulance responding.  They’ve usually gotten there long before, so if you see them in transit, it’s the second wave for something big.

Still no word on the BOL.

Today’s plan is working at my customer’s place.  I’d like to wrap that up and invoice.

Because money is good.

It lets you stack up goods.  Which everyone should be doing.   So do it.

nick

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